A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers

From answering the question "Why teach writing?" to offering guidance in managing group work and responding to assignments, this remarkably successful text provides a comprehensive introduction to the teaching of writing. Now updated to incorporate the latest developments in the field, A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers describes in straightforward terms the cross-disciplinary scholarship that has reinvigorated composition teaching. Reflecting current views of writing as social interaction, this edition emphasizes workshops, collaborative learning, and holistic evaluation. Chapters on prewriting techniques, organizing material, paragraphing, sentence structure, words, and revising describe how the teacher can guide students through composing, while sections on rhetoric, cognition, and linguistics discuss theoretical principles that support classroom practices and make the teacher's performance effective. Treating both the theory and practice of writing, the author encourages teachers to adopt the methods that best meet their students' needs and to develop a style of teaching informed by knowledgeable decisions. Over forty percent of the text's material is new to this edition, offering composition scholars a broad range of techniques to encourage and motivate their students. Complete with an updated bibliography and a table of important dates in the history of composition, this classic work offers both prospective and seasoned writing teachers convenient access to recent scholarship in the field and inspires them to examine what it means to teach well.